Fhaldara

I have many lily of the valley fragrances including some rather expensive ones, but this is my favorite. It's like unexpectedly finding a patch of the flowers while walking through the woods. The lily of the valley scent is unmistakable, but here it's surrounded by some wildflowers, trees (of course!) and the earthy, mossy forest floor. Much more interesting than the usual soliflores.

I came across this while doing a 'search by notes' on another site. It had all the notes I wanted, and an online search yielded quite a few bottles for sale. It was inexpensive, so I went ahead with a blind buy - figured that I could always give it to someone if I didn't like it. Well, as it turns out I love it! It opens with citrus and herbal notes that give it a fresh greenness that continues into the floral middle notes. I get primarily orange blossom and lily of the valley. The base is earthy, vetiver and moss with some light musk. It's a light, fresh fragrance with decent longevity and sillage. An interesting fact is that this company still produces Oh! de London, which was sold first by Yardley and which was wildly popular in the 60's.

I have several linden fragrances, including L'Artisan's L'Ete en Douce and AG's Eau du Ciel. Both are beautiful, but D'Orsay's Tilleul is in a class by itself as far as I'm concerned. It's one of the most exquisite scents I've had the pleasure to smell. It opens with lemon blossom and the merest hint of melon, cyclamen and linden blossom in the heart, drying down to acacia and a very realistic hay. Beeswax is listed as a base note, but I don't get any type of sweet wax/honey at all. It's like sitting in a grassy field under a blossoming linden tree with wildflowers everywhere, and a soft breeze bringing the scent of fresh cut hay.

I use at least a bottle of this per month - It's very versatile, I use it for after bath splash, linen spray, room spray. I decant some into a small spray bottle for my bag. It beats any eau de cologne I've ever tried for freshness by far. The lavender is very prominent, but blends very well with the other notes and it has good longevity for this type of cologne. Sillage is average.

I received a sample of this with an order, and was very surprised to find I liked it. My taste runs more to aromatic green and unisex citrus fragrances than to fruity florals, but this I like - maybe its the pear in the opening, because I like it less as it dries down. There is some kind of synthetic musky note I dislike. I wear it when I want to be sure I won't offend anyone with my more interesting fragrances.